Musings...

Kerala Sightseeing - Alleppey Boat ride

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Mon, 02 May 2011 14:47:00 +0000

I was determined to take pictures of God's Own Country before the disastrous scam filled 2008 ended. It was fueled more because I had shot lots of pictures from rest of the world and had very few from Kerala. This was decidedly unjust to a Kerala loving mallu like me. So there I went, taking precious time off my stay with my parents in a sweet little village near Edappal, Malappuram District, Kerala.

I took the morning Guruvayoor Ekm Push Pull train at 6:50 AM towards Ernakulam. The train was filled with office goers who were on season ticket. The one way fare of 17 rupees for a distance of 100km was a definite attraction for people to get on the train to ernakulam.

After reaching ekm at 9:30 and a trip to the bank, I set out on a bus to Kottayam.

At Kottayam bus stand, took an auto to Boat Jetty.

This was my ride

The boat was scheduled for departure at 3:30 PM.

The ticket fare was 11 Rupees for the full Kottayam Alleppey stretch. The journey takes you through the middle of the highly scenic kuttanad, the rice bowl of kerala, for a full 3 hours. I decided it was the best deal for my money. Besides, you get to go through the same transportation the locals use to get from one place to another.

As the boat left promptly at 3:30 PM, it was clear the journey was going to be fun. There were some 6-10 tourists from europe on the boat, all headed to alleppey. The tourists and me had cameras ready, all set to click at the drop of a hat! :)

The initial part of the journey goes through the inland canals, roughly 70m wide... you can clearly see the life on both sides. It passes through rice fields, houses, churches and other paraphrenalia of rural kerala. The villagers actively help the boat pass by the canal by lifting the "bridge" across the canal. Once the boat passes, the bridge is put back into place so that people can cross from one side to another. See it here:

Sometimes you feel almost like a peeping tom, passing by village huts and houses from a distance of max 20-30 m with nothing else in the neighbourhood.... a few dogs, women washing clothes in the river etc are routine sights....

It is this sheer touch with life that makes this boat ride so extra ordinary. Nothing tourist like in this ride - its so natural, in touch with the reality of day to day existence of the local people...

This is a bunch of INTUC workers in a boat. If you notice carefully you will see that the boat is motorised and it contains some stones too!

The best part of the ride is shots like this:

As you enter the main backwaters, the shore gets more distant but still very clearly within view... this is about midway along the ride.... See this church on the banks - almost picture perfect.

Once you enter the main backwaters, you get to see a flurry of "tourist boats", all of them coming from Alleppey. Remember, National Geographic had once rated Alleppey as one of the top 10 (yea, ten!! its not a typo) destinations in the world. Alleppey is commonly known as venice of the east due to the very extensive network of canals and water transport - exactly the same ones that we have been travelling on till now.

Look into the distance and you see a hell lot of "house boats". Now you have an idea of the number of tourists here....

A typical houseboat looks like this:

Notice the air cooler and the generator set on the boat. It is horribly hot on these house boats in summer, especially if you are out at noon time. Some have full fledged airconditioning, restrooms and all. Very comfortable...!!

Boats and more boats!!

Here is one of those bigger "house boats" crossing us.... these cost money, serious money!

By now, one will find how appropriately Kerala Tourism board coined that catch-phrase "gods own country" for this wonderful land.

The sheer joy and beauty of this ride is to be had to be believed. The best part is how low cost it is - 11 rs for a 3 hour ride through heaven, in a boat! wow.

You also get to see fishermen at work....

Caution: (fisher) MEN AT WORK

The final destination of the boat is very close to the KSRTC bus stand in Alleppey. Its just a few minutes walk. I took one of those "superfasts" bound for Calicut and reached my home town! :)

Strongly urge you to take these kind of trips if you are keen on exploring the rustic beauty of Malluland.
WELCOME TO KERALA - God's Own Country!!

Losing my weight

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 06:11:00 +0000

Its definitely one of the losses everyone is happy about. Not even just happy, I must say blissful. In an overly visually dominated world, one's looks, figure, size of shirt, pant, waist size of skirts seem to matter more than anything else.

The media and movies play to this big time. Even seen a fat man or woman in a movie? I come from a state of very sensible movie goers - God's own country, Kerala. In fact, it is the ONLY state in this country which accepts heroines purely on the basis of their acting skills and not on the waist size or other sizes. So I thought mallus grew up with a very healthy self image, especially when their body is concerned. After all it is a land where martial arts originated, or at least widely popular. A very physically active bunch of people.

Alas, I was so mistaken. TV and media has had their degrading effect on god's own people as well.

In a byegone era, the big and fat people dominated. Big time! It was considered great to be physically big and huge. With plenty of fat. These days it is the other way round. It is the skinny ones who walk with an air of pomp, feeling sorry for the fat ones. The skinny ones proudly say how their weight has never exceeded 70kgs and how they are always taking care of their health.

Obsession with weight loss has become an epic phenomenon. Billions of dollars getting spend, but the average weight just goes on increasing. Isnt there something seriously wrong? In a country like India, where no one wants to move their ass, many heroes "control" their weight by just reducing the quantity of food. Oh, wish it was that simple.

As a person who weighs 108 kgs, I get my fair share of criticism. Criticism? Of course, From the worthies who are under 70 or under 80 kgs in weight. They feel it is their birthright to tell us fatties to cut down on food first. Without even so much as checking the basics. The underlying assumption always being you eat 24 hours a day and thats why you gain weight. Ah! The same folks who criticise me so fervently never do any exercise, while I put in 2 hours on my bike *everyday*. Of course, they have an answer for that too. Because of all your cycling, you eat too much. What a simple world, is it not? What the dudes dont realise is after 1-2 weeks of dedicated pedalling (or any exercise for that matter), your body gets used to the rhythm and you wont feel a bit more hungrier than before. But then how will they know? The only exercise they know is sweating watching some horror movie on TV, on a nice comfortable couch, munching potato chips.

I am told that the biggest problem in fighting obesity is people do not see obesity as a disease. Thats the biggest issue. It is not a cosmetic issue at all, considering the attendant miseries and myriad diseases it can possibly bring. We never make fun of someone with cancer or heart disease, though lifestyle probably have contributed to these. Then how on earth do we think it is alright to wisecrack about the obese guy, struggling to walk around or take a few steps? Do you think they are munching food all the time? May be you should check the facts. I personally know folks who are very heavy but eat almost equal or less than some of the 70 kg worthies.

I have a question to all the skinnies. If you have never been 90-110 kgs, how can you to give your weight loss wisdom to obese folks? Man, for heavens sake you have not lost any weight, because you have not gained any!! You really dont qualify to say how to reduce weight.

I have always found it is the skinny folks, for whom 70kgs is like an elephant's weight, who have the strongest opinions on weight loss and what food to take to reduce weight!

My dad used to poke fun on my weight, directly implying it was all the food that I ate. When he had a heart attack and a subsequent byepass surgery and I stayed with him in the hospital, I found something interesting. Out of the 20-30 patients in the cardiac ward, only one person was 90 kgs in weight. Rest of them were all under 75!! That time onwards, I am not sure if it is weight that alone causes heart problems. Dad never makes fun of my weight anymore, considering all the exercise, walking, tea without sugar, no meat and such disciplines did not prevent *his* heart attack, inspite of his weight of only 70 kgs.

Man, I eat only twice a day (no breakfast). But then the skinnies say, you should never skip breakfast. You should eat this, that, drink this, water, blah blah blah. So whatever a obese guy does is a problem. Some say you should just have 2-3 solid meals a day. Other say no, you should have ten small sized meals. Now probably you get an idea of the fat dudes' issues - he gets unasked for advise from all direction, none of which are consistent with the other. And each of those advises given out with an air of superiority from an under 70 kg nobody. No wonder, astrology seems much more credible than dietician's advice.

I am 108 kgs and have a BMI of 34. And I will live longer and healthier than 95 percentile of the Indian folks who are reading this. Thats for sure. Overweight or obese, I am healthier than you, any day, any time.

Lets face the fact folks - if it is that easy to lose weight, by just saying no to a few cookies or soft drinks, everyone in the world lose weight. Because no one chooses to be obese. Period.

Learning from the Japanese

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 10:15:00 +0000

It was one of those rare days when I got a sensible forwarded email… About how the Japanese folks took the disaster in their fold and came out like Champs. Here are some points.

I highly recommend folks to watch movies like “The Last Samurai” starring Tom Cruise to understand the Japanese way of life.
My comments are in Italics.

1. THE CALM Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.
I have always respected the Japanese for their work ethic, composure and the general “zen” way in which they handle life. Stoicism - if I put it in English. To me, the Japanese folks have learnt more from the Gita than what the Indians did. When I saw the folks on TV, running amidst the shattered ruins of their own houses, the thought from Krishna’s advise to Arjuna “be like the lotus in water – in the water, but not touched by it” rang true.

2. THE DIGNITY Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.
When you learn to respect yourself, you respect others too. Its natural. Just compare it with what happens in other parts of the world, notably the civilized world and the New Orleans incident 3 years ago…. Just compare and you will know what these folks are made of.

3. THE ABILITY The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.
This is an area where they have been masters. And will be in the future too. Its what is called hoping for the best, but being prepared for the worst.

4. THE GRACE People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.
I believe it is again the zen like quality. And concern for the other person. It is too degrading to call these as “etiquettes” in my opinion. It is not a mannerism, but a genuine love, concern for the other person and the deeply understood need to stand together in times of disaster.

5. THE ORDER No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.
Have you thought about this: such simple civilized behavior surprises us? It shows me how far I am from civilization. But we get used to the fact, for everyone around us is also similar. The fact that in a country like ours where we take the moral high ground all the time, these simple things awe us is a clear indication of our moral depravity. Time and again I have seen this incorrigible superiority complex, that we are better than the rest. One of our national songs itself is “sare jahan se acha”. I am sure I can waste my life searching for proof of the same.

6. THE SACRIFICE Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?
Boss, we will only talk about Vedas and advaita and karma. No action. Just words, wallowing in intellectual garbage. When a testing time like this comes, you can imagine. We will sit at home and chant hanuman chalisa at 4 AM, but we will not move our bottoms. That’s been our heritage, at least in the recent past. These 50 people will remind us what it is to be human, what humanity and all the assorted scriptures mean.

7. THE TENDERNESS Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.
In our country, everything would have cost 100 times. Absolutely no doubt. But we will slit others throats by chanting “hare rama” “hare Krishna” etc etc. We bring god even into business, while looting hapless people.

8. THE TRAINING The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.
In our country no one would have had a clue. Its kind of ok, since we are not used to or trained to handle such things. But definitely not something to be proud of.

9. THE MEDIA They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.
Ha!! All the mass media channels would have had a field day. Repeating the same scenes of suffering day in and day out, and folks like Burkha Dutt coming and puking all over us, on air.

10. THE CONSCIENCE When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly
We would have even stolen the scriptures from the stores! And felt proud of it. And went home and prayed.

Skepticism

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 03:27:00 +0000

The dictionary defines skeptic as a person who habitually doubts, questions or disagrees with assertions or generally accepted conclusions.
Since "skepticism" or "skeptic" is a tough words to type, I will represent it by S.
I find that modern education makes everyone a S by default. Because of our insistence on proof for every iota of thing that we want to believe or do. It is good to be S about something new - but for a while. The skepticism should be a quality that lets you explore more of what you are "skeptical about". However, what I find is most people get stuck there. And this quality, which should actually bring about change and value in your life, becomes the very thing that prevents you from growing.
If one is skeptical about everything in life at 20 it is alright. At 30 too, it is ok. At 40 and 50 if you are still there, to me it just means you have wasted 10, 20 years of your life doing nothing. Because standing where you are, there is a limit on what you can see... one has to keep moving to see more, like seeing things from a train on the move. If you insist on remaining in the railway station only, the chances are you will just get used to that dirty place and its cacophony. Worse, you will misunderstand this for life and get used to it and later on in old age, even be proud of it!
When I am S about something, say work or new idea or a new person, I am saying that I dont believe if this person/ idea/ work is really any good. However, in most cases, my predisposition is to believe anything negative about it, but not the positive. To believe the negative I need no proof. But if it is something positive, I demand all the proof - and some more. I believe this is a very very stupid attitude. A skeptical person should be hesitant about making a positive or negative conclusion about anything. He cannot afford to be selective.
Our negativity comes from an instinctive watching out for the negatives, as it is a survival mechanism. But the modern day media takes it too far. You have newscasters belching out negative, horribly depressing news on you all the time, 24x7. And we guys go and gulp up their puke as if it is nothing less than "amrit" or the heavenly nectar. If someone watches TV four hours a day, my hope on that person is very less - this person will only believe negative stuff about anything. Dont take my word, just check - what is the kind of enlightening things you see on tv on a day to day basis.
And since you have "looked" at the idea/ person/ work, you will have an air of an expert - without knowing anything. The highly skeptical person talks like an expert - you will have to see through him to know his words are empty. He will be a real "armchair expert"; sitting in his chair, not moving an inch, and delivering judgements on the world. Again, these judgements usually are how bad this or that is. It is seldom that a so called skeptical person "approves" anything.
The fun thing is the above description fits most of us, in some area of life or the other, to say the least. Skeptic is not that rare person whom you meet once in a lifetime. It is the person who is reflected in the mirror when you stand in front of it.
My way to handle it is the "moving corridor" policy. I keep moving ahead on the area I am S about. I explore more, and as I move forward, new avenues open to me. I realise, OMG, this is so different from what I used to think. Or this person is far better than what he looks initially. But to reach this place, I need to move, explore and be willing to learn.

Cycling: My Summary

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 06:22:00 +0000

I believe that you have read at least a few of my previous cycling articles written here. Otherwise this article may not make sense.

I believe nothing in life is possible without being a fanatic. Call me a cycling fanatic if you will. Sometimes you wonder, are there not better methods to be fit and save the planet? Of course there may be, but this is a method that I know and enjoy to the hilt and that’s why I write about it.

Just because I write this article, I am not the best cyclist in town. In fact, I don’t even qualify to be called a good cyclist! I am not into competition or macho stuff. That’s way beyond my interest. I slog and sloth it out to office at an average speed of 17-20kmph. There are a lot of guys who are intensely passionate about cycling, much more than I am. I salute them for their spirit and consider it an honour to know them, though I cannot list out all their names here.

My writing about cycling is not to exclude or ridicule other means of transportation. That will be stupid on my part. But know one thing: a cycle is one of the most efficient means of transportation known to man today. Why do I say that. If you have a packet of 1 byte with a 10 byte header, would you call it efficient data transmission? Yet that is what we IT guys do when we drive a car alone to office. A person weighing 70 kgs riding a car weighing 1400 kgs to take him to work. Where is the efficiency? Its like 20 bytes of header to take 1 byte of data! Whereas if he is cycling the weight of a good cycle is about 15-18 kgs. See the optimization.

I always believe that something that is simple to do (like cycling) is also simple not to do and that is a trap where most of us fall. I respect your right to cycle, I respect your right not to cycle. If you look for reasons to cycle you will find them. If you look for reasons not to cycle, there are plenty too. The choice is completely yours!

To me, the reasons *for* outweighed heavily the ones *against*. The feeling of the nice morning bangalore wind and sunshine on the skin and the slight sweat far outweighed the so called risks and other perceived notions. When I am on the bike two things come to a standstill - world and time. In a way I found my own private "get away" for the time I am on the bike. My own heaven. All the worries and tensions and such tend to amazingly melt away when I am on the bike. This one reason alone is enough for me to continue cycling for my life time.

Cycling is not an answer to all of humanity’s problems. It is not so glamorous as we think. It is not a magic solution for weight loss. You will not suddenly look like those ancient greek sculptures of men just because you started pedaling a few kilometers a day.

Good inclines will make you huff and puff, like a steam locomotive in full traction, inspite of having all those gears. You may look plain stupid to others.

There is sweat, rain, heat, irritated car and bike riders, cow dung on the road and that occasional idiot spitting on you accidentally from bmtc buses. Dogs run behind you, barking menacingly in dark alleys. All that happens. Or as we saw in Forrest Gump, “shit happens”. So what?

Can you beat me?

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 09:41:00 +0000

My question to you is simple: can you beat my 50000 km cycling?

I am sure that most of you are going to yell an emphatic NO. And on the face of it, sounds very correct. Even some of the accomplished cyclists will have to think about it for a while.

I am overweight and arrogant. Not exactly the fittest guy you expect to see on the bike. Most of you reading this might be weighing under 80 kgs. Which means u have about a 23 kg weight advantage over me. Some of you are even 10 yrs younger to me. I am 34. Even with all that advantage in your favour, can you beat my fifty thousand kilometers?

The logic is simple folks. The real question is how much time will it take to do 50k. As a lifetime goal its very reachable, no doubt. But do you want to spend a lifetime to do something I did in 10.5 years? This 10.5 yrs is including a total of 16 months of onsite travel.

To do 50000 km in a car in a year is a pain, forget cycling. If you do 25000km in a car a year, you are considered driving too much! :) A jumbo jet flying at 900 km per hour will take 55 hours of flying to reach 50k mark.

50K is not easy - anyway you look at it. Remember this, if you are one of those stud cyclists pedalling Bangalore-Mysore and back every week, you will be doing approx 300km in a weekend. If you do that week on week for 52 weeks, you will hit only 15600km per year. That means you will take 3 years and 3 months almost to hit 50K.

I have shared in my previous blog the tip: daily cycling. The best way is cycle to work! This works especially well if you stay far away from office. Any big goal has to be broken down into something manageable. And we have to work on it relentlessly, day on day, month on month. But dont begin with something like 20km per day. If you are new to cycling, start cycling 2 km per day for a week. Then graduate to 4 per day for a week. And so on, based on your comfort. Over a period of 2 months, I believe that 40 km per day is easily achievable if you stay 20 km away from work.

Make cycling a habit - if you want to go to the nearby grocery shop or post office or whatever, just take the bike. Slowly this will become a habit and you will start cycling everywhere! And without even thinking consciously about it. And thats how the magic begins to happen. Slowly but surely. And the effects start compounding.

I highly recommend everyone to read the book "The COMPOUND Effect" by Darren Hardy. This man very clearly talks about what it takes to do what seems "impossible". The secret is daily routine, and doing it in manageable chunks. This is not a health book, but a book for organising yourself, in the category of "self-help". Dont snigger, one can never be too good to read this book. I found it out myself!

For example, he talks about how a 2 hr workout 5 days a week is not sustainable in the long run, at least for 99.9% of us. Because it is fundamentally a very tough thing - the momentum and enthusiasm slowly wanes away. 5 day work out slowly will turn into 3 and 2 day work outs and will eventually stop.

And then we tend to drop it completely. The best would be a 1 hour work out 3-4 times a week, max.

Please follow a similar approach when u start cycling. When we begin doing something, we tend to be over-enthusiastic and do it overly. When u begin something, keep a lifetime goal of continuing it - thats the sure shot way of success. Very very few of us can sustain a lifetime practice of 2 hour workout a day, 5 days a week. Cycling is far more simpler than that.

The key is consistence. It is far more effective to do something at a lesser rate (20 km per day), but maintaining it 365 days a year, rather than do superhuman stunts (like 250 km per day) once or twice or thrice a month.

20km per day is not big deal guys - you will do it in one hour. Will it happen automatically? No. Lets say u stay just 5km from office and u ride up and down to work. Thats 10 km. Once your are back home in the evening, if you are willing to switch off the idiot box and do some pedalling, you will enjoy it all the more! 10 km ride takes 30 mins. This is very very moderate rate, almost without any exertion at all.

I highly recommend you guys to read this book - this will help you not only beating my 50K, but in your life too. I have not read such a good book in a very long time. PERIOD. And I read a lot of books, mind you.

You can download a pdf of this book for just 12 USD. Check the net.
And after that, the tough part - put the stuff into practice and beat me to 1 lakh km!!

Hey, believe it or not, if I have inspired at least one person to really DO this, and beat me with any target (distance or time), I consider the purpose of this blog done.

Good luck to all cyclists.

Cycling: early memories

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 08:07:00 +0000

I used to be a child who was really afraid, especially of falling. And in as much as a cycle attracted me, the fear of falling prevented me from getting on the bike, inspite of having helpful uncles and cousins who would urge me on. Finally in 1984 summer, I gathered enough mettle with my maternal uncle (mom’s elder brother) to try a small cycle with two wheels. Not the kids variety, a proper cycle, mind you.

Day after day, my uncle tried in vain to get me going on the cycle. I would cry, shout, get scared the moment he indicated he would “leave” me. He got tired of running behind me, pushing and holding the bike. After the entire summer of 1984, sometime in May, I remember my uncle telling my mom that her son will never learn cycling. And my mom, sweetheart that she is, listened with almost tears in her eyes, to the possibility that her first son would never cycle. It used to be more of her dream and anyone else’s to see me on the bike. I felt bad that I disappointed her so much.

When I got back to 5th std, one of my classmates, a pretty girl by name Rani Peter used to come to school in a cycle. My god – in those days, it was a revelation. She was having army background and had come from delhi in 3rd standard. Now this dame cycling got me seriously jealous. Seriously. Those were the macho days – if a girl could do it, the guy has to, no questions about it.

After we moved to our new home in 1985, we had one of our neighbours who said he will give it a shot - to try and teach me pedaling. My mom explained to him how her brother had tried his best to get me going and how hopeless it was. This gentleman, by name Sunil did not budge. We rented a bike and went off to a nearby ground. In 30 minutes, I was cycling away as if I have been doing nothing else in my life but cycling!! With a joy that knew no limit, I cycled and came in front of my house and showed off to my mom. My friend Sunil thought that he had some “magic touch” that I learned it so fast. Afterwards, I saw him running behind a lot of kids on their bicycles – “teaching” them! ☺

Obviously all those hours with my uncle had gotten me to the very edge – just a little more push and I would have started cycling!! Morale: don’t give up. When the night is the darkest, the morning is near.

Recently, I told my uncle that I have more miles on my cycle than what his entire family had in their lifetimes. He was mighty proud! For a boy who was predicted to never learn cycling, this was indeed big. Very big. No wonder I relate big time to the movie Forrest Gump. For those of you who have not yet seen this classic, it is the story of a child by name Forrest, with weak legs, who goes on to become a high profile long distance runner, running coast to coast in the United States – for the sheer joy of it!

From 9th std onwards (circa 1989), I got permission to go to school on cycle. It was liberation! I can still close my eyes and picture those “first” days when I used to get out of that small road into bigger avenues. Before that it used to be trial runs on my dad’s bike, back and forth a 300m stretch of road in front of my house.

School days turned into those heady college days... and I score well enough in kerala state engineering entrance exam to gain a computer science seat in REC Rourkela, one of the hallowed places for engineering in this country. The college had a very huge campus - 640 acres - second only to IIT Kharagpur in area. I continued with pedaling while I was there. The huge campus kind of mandated it. The hostel itself was about a km away from the main buildings! It is a pity these days to see colleges in 20 acres - what a shame.

I used to participate in what was called "cross country" cycling while I was in REC. The most challenging part of the race was it started at 4:30 AM in the morning. I enjoyed every bit of it, though I never came in the first three. Almost 6 years of pedalling there - I have no clue how much distance would have been done, since I did not have a meter...

After those days came the days in Bangalore about which I have elaborated in the previous two posts.

Cycling in Bangalore: Your answers questioned!

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 09:01:00 +0000

Here is some of the most common things I hear about cycling.
Have you noticed, the ones who never cycled are the ones with strongest opinions on the dangers of cycling!!

• Its not safe!!
This is definitely my favourite “excuse”. It is the excuse most polite folks give you. They don’t want to piss you off by saying it is déclassé or cheap or too much effort. Safety is the buzzword. These are the same folks who will buy a car without ABS or airbag, but safety is somehow big on their list. Who are they deluding, except themselves? I have only one thing to tell them – GROW UP.

Let me put it like this. I have had only two accidents in 50000 km and not one of them spilled a drop of blood. 10.5 years and not a single accident!! How many motor cyclists can claim the same? One accident was when a SUV hit me from behind at 5kmph. Very slow impact, just touched my bike. Enough to spoil the rim, but I did not even fall down or anything. Second was when a scooter crossed right in front of me the wrong way and I hit it slightly. This time my right hand hurt a little, a light sprain.

Yes, when you look “down” from a bus, the cyclist looks so vulnerable. But I feel that in this city a cyclist is very safe. The people of Banglaore are real gentlemen. I feel that most people respect a cyclist. These days it is definitely there, as people are more "health-wise". When I started off in 2000, I used to be treated like a stray dog. Your existence on the road did not matter. And traffic never causes any problems – as long as you don’t cause any problems to traffic.

• Pollution
I love this one too. And to some extent it is valid. Believe it or not, whether you are biking or in a car or in a bus pollution affects you. And pollution does not prevent most people from doing anything they have to – like going to work and back. Then how come it only prevents cycling? To me it looks like many folks are hiding behind the veil of pollution! If it is such a concern, there are very good quality masks available www.respro.com that can completely seal off the nostrils/ mouth from dust/ smoke. I have used them too and found them very effective.

The funniest part is some of my friends who smoke upto 10 cigarettes per day, are concerned about pollution if they cycle. My god. I love cattle and street dogs more – at least they don’t talk such rubbish.

• Cheap activity?
Oh!! where were you born? In the windsor castle? If not, dont act like you did! :)
This more of an attitude issue. These days it is not a problem, since there are plenty of youngsters on bike, with helmets and flash lights and everything. It almost looks like a mini circus!
Cycling is slowly evolving to be a fashion statement! In this city alone you can buy bikes worth one lakh and more.

• Sounds good, but can I do it?
Absolutely! I am the proof. If I can cycle with 105 kgs weight, 36km (18x2) in a day to office and back, what is preventing you. Remember, the lighter you are, the easier it is! ☺

And especially if you have a bike like this:

• I don’t have your stamina.
This is again hiding behind biology and physiology. How do you know you don’t have stamina? You develop stamina for a specific activity when you do it again and again.
Your body is more wonderful than you think. It adapts to all kinds of effort. Believe me, in two weeks of daily consistent effort, you will be cycling around in gay abandon.

• Cycling to work would take a lot of time, right?
Yes, indeed. But traveling by bus or car also takes time. Almost the same or even more. So the question is not about cycling, but how far you stay from work! Most of the time I am at par with buses or even better than them during peak hours.
So if you dont intend to commute, better dont buy a bike! If you bought a treadmill, like most people do, when the first nasha is over, you can at least use it as a cloth stand. With a cycle, even that is not convenient. Stay away!

• Should I do it?
Depends entirely on you. Boss, this is India - You have the right to be as unhealthy as you choose to be.

• I like it, but don’t want to commute to work.
Sorry to say, but if that is indeed the case, the probability of you continuing cycling above 3 months is very very less. In other words, the cycle that you bought will be a useless thing in 3 months! Not a great idea, I would say. The best way is to include it as a commute to work, so that you don’t have to set aside “time for cycling” from your busy schedule or the precious weekends.

• Gears make it easy. Whats the challenge?
And the above statement can be only made by a guy who has never cycled.
Gears make it fun, not easy!
Get on a geared bike, try a good incline. Now try it without a geared bike. You will know the difference. Gear only changes the rate at which work is done. The total work done still remains the same. Elementary, dr. Watson! Gears will definitely help you ride up the inclines which would otherwise make you get down and push the bike up.

• I have been thinking about it
Dude, don’t think. Just do! You don’t think about cycling, you do it. Or you don’t. Don’t let words like “thinking” make you think that you are accomplishing something. You cannot learn swimming by “thinking” about it. Don’t hide behind words. Come forward, be a man! Have you heard this – male by birth, man by choice?
How long are you thinking about it? Some of my folks have been thinking for 11 years! And still no signs of action. Don’t get into this “analysis paralysis” mode. The more you analyse, the more paralysed you get. What we need is action, not just thoughts and theories.
If a thought does not lead you into action, identify it to be a “pseudo-feeling”. A real feeling always induces action.

• What is the cost of cycling?
This is actually a misplaced question. The real question is what is the cost of not cycling? Examples are not very inspiring - Heart problems, high BP, diabetes maybe.
Of course, you can start pedaling with a basic light weight bike like the Hero Hawk or BSA Mac series, both of which are still in production. Get one with 5 or 8 or 16 gears. Not less than 5 gears please. For about 7K rupees, you are pretty much ready with a basic bike, helmet, lights and all.

• These trucks! Do they let you cycle?
Sorry to break any civilized illusions, but I face more stupid behavior from bikes and cars than from trucks. Truckers are gentle folks, they are pros. They know how to behave on the roads. Many times these heavy trucks have come behind me on narrow roads, and applied brakes just so that they don’t have to honk and scare me off. I am yet to see that kind of civilized behavior from cars and two wheelers! Sorry.

• What happens if the tyre punctures?
Oh, come on! Stop kidding. What happens if your motorbike or car tyre punctures? You howl, shout and abandon the vehicle completely and go by bus? No. You just fix it and get on with life. Ditto with cycling too. Fix the puncture, get on with cycling!!

• Too many flyover and bridges
That’s why you need gears. Gears definitely make it a little better for you. When you are in a vehicle and you reach a flyover, do you get off and pray that somehow with god’s blessings the vehicle goes over? You just press the pedal a little more. Same thing here – pedal harder! ☺

• What if it rains?
If you start off cycling, the question is not if it rains, but when? Sooner or later you have to face rains. Buy a raincoat! Simple. Don’t do stunts like cycling with umbrella in one hand and all that. In my childhood I used to see folks in kerala doing it. Those are meant only for the mallus – rest of you, wear a raincoat.

• How do you know you did 50K km?
How do you know your car is due for service? Either the service center calls you, or you figure out from the odometer. I have a cycle computer or cyclometer on my bike and I keep a daily log of the distance done. I write it down in my dairy, on a *daily* basis. I have been doing that since june 2000. I have not missed a single km that I pedaled here in this city.

My hero hawk has two meters - one analog and one digital!

• Don’t you sweat?
That’s how humans are made – if we work out, we sweat. What is the big deal? If you are commuting, do so in a jeans and t-shirt and change at office. Simple!
If the only sweating you do is when you watch horror movies on TV, or you sit for your appraisals at work, my heart goes out to you.

• What will others think?
Wow. Now we are getting closer to the real deal! Frankly, does it matter to you what others think? Or you just think that it matters? Your friends and relatives have problem because you found a simple solution to health problems? Or simply because you found something you like to do without polluting the planet? If so, those folks cannot be called your friends!
All these initial inhibitions will melt away when you get those glances and words of appreciation from complete strangers and friends.
What will others think if you get hospitalized with heart disease or diabetes or other maladies, 20 yrs from now. Let me give you an indication – they may say you were just busy making money, without bothering about health! Dude, others will say many things, we don’t have control over it. You have control only over what you do and what you think – that’s the fact and lets face it.
All said and done, I have just one question - are you ready to get your ass on the saddle? If so, welcome to the world of cycling. If not, forget that you ever read this article. Have fun.

50K in Bangalore!

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 08:51:00 +0000

28th Jan 2011 is a very proud day for me! It is my answer to skeptics around me who discouraged me from starting on this activity almost 11 yrs ago.

If some of you thought it is running 50km in a day, I am very sorry. Here I am referring to a very very different 50k. This is my 50000 km of cycling in bangalore! Basically commuting to work on cycle in Bangalore.

My cycling in Bangalore started after my first job in 1999. I found going by bus (no Volvos in that era, even decent pushpak buses (cream and brown stripes) were considered luxury!) very suffocating. Buses were not clean, and very crowded. It was not an inspiring thought to get into the bus in the morning -- it was indeed a bus travelers night mare. (Please note that this is the pre-volvo era). Add to that the occasional arrogant conductor who found well dressed IT guys from outside Karnataka very upsetting. Its no wonder Rajnikant left BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corp) conductor job and went on to be an actor!

An year of bus travel convinced me that this is indeed not the way to go forward. I thought of buying a cycle or a bike. Finally the cost savings decided it in favour of the cycle. And I am thankful to this day that I took that decision! Though it was very simple and clear to me that cycling was fun, most of my friends and well wishers were shocked. Very shocked. They said pollution and traffic will take a toll – and it did! Not on me, but on those very folks who made those sincere but misguided statements.

Paying a one time cost of 3500 Rs to get a brand new 5 gear Hero Hawk in 2000 sounded like a real bargain. Just 3500 Rs to get rid of the bus ride and get to work taking in the (then) fresh Bangalore morning air! Wow. It was too irresistible an idea. However, not everyone thought the same way. In fact some of my relatives clearly did not like the idea of my going to their home on a cycle. It was so déclassé, according to them. Of course, they did not tell it directly, but their actions spoke louder than words.

But once I was on the bike, the world did not matter. It is one activity that I enjoyed to the max, absolutely no questions about it. If you do not enjoy the process, there is no way 50k is possible commuting through the city. Rain or shine, my bike was out. Day after day, month after month, me and my bike was out and running. Kilometers accumulated…

On weekends I used to do 100+ km per day. It was godforsakenly tiring, but heck! It was fun. Real fun. A lone man fighting against himself. The time when Hyderabad NH was two lane and no new airport, not even the talk of it, in devanahalli.

In 2004, I met a fellow cyclist and my cycling life would never remain the same. His name is Shreekumar, and he is an engineer with HP. Brilliant chap. He guided me on long distance cycling and in apr 2005 we cycled to Salem from Bangalore, a distance of 195km in a day! Had it not been for Shree, I would never have attempted a feat like that on my own. Shree had all the credentials – he had cycled Chennai Calcutta at that time, and practically all of south India upto kanyakumari. Shree also told me about electronic cyclometers which give you speed, average, distance, odometer and a variety of other functional in one small unit. He is also the one who introduced me to the global positioning systems (gps).
Lesson: best to learn from someone who has done it already and is willing to teach you how to!

The fall of US

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 19:24:00 +0000

I intended the title to be misleading. I am talking about the Fall season here in the US. I just happened to be here on company money again, which is really cool. One thing I am beginning to envy here is the splendid colours that turn up even in the most bland places during this beautiful season. Trees turn light green, then yellow, and then red! Ha. It almost half the number of colours in the spectrum. Then finally they fall off, which is not exactly pretty, but after all those colours, its OK.

Unfortunately, not many of the americans appreciate the beauty of it, looks like. Especially in a small town like Champaign, folks seem to be more bothered about the television than the colours of nature. Typically American, I should say.

This is incidentally my third business class trip to the US. We are lucky enough to fly business class even without reaching senior management! Motorola does treat us pretty well.

More international flights into bangalore is definitely good news. I hear BA, NW and KLM and beginning their service. Besides, now there is a direct flight of American Airlines to begin from chicago all the way to New Delhi, non stop.

This is just an update because I have nothing else to do right now.

Run for Life

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Tue, 17 May 2005 08:14:00 +0000

I missed the Bangalore marathon!

I am still gathering myself up to believe that this fantastic event went out of my scheme of things. I am not to be blamed entirely. The more I look at this state (karnataka) and how it does things, the more I appreciate Bihar. I mean, the announcement for an event that requires massive and intense preperation came in just a month before. How on earth do they think they could make the numbers?

As with anything in Bangalore, much hype was around... they were expecting 30000 to turn up. Had it not been for the celebration run, no one would have given the thing a second look. I know the jargon spewing, brand conscious morons of this city - for them sun rises at 10 am and running at 6 am will be unimaginable. I was suprised that only about 200 people ran the full marathon! No wonder, I never find the actual figure of the folks who ran the full marathon anywhere - it is such a dismal figure. The organisers are to be blamed for it partly. A marathon in the midst of summer!

I think Bangalore is definitely not the place for a marathon or any high energy events. The people are fundamentally lazy - in fact, lazy will be a major euphemism. They are slothful, pig like. A marathon in such a city? haha.

All said and done, I intend to run the full marathon next year. No joke. The whole idea attracts me because I think it is fundamentally stupid. I mean, running 42.195 km for no reason at all! No sane man would do it - but then, no sane man enjoys life either. Sane people have only contributed to bureaucracy (if you call it sane) - the (half) insane ones brought the revolutions...

Sanity comes in between life and oneself.

Cycles of life

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 07:29:00 +0000

I intended the title to be misleading... :) Wanted to sound very philosophical about something very earthy. This is about the cycle trip I had on Sunday, 10th of April. Me, Shreekumar (yes, the same guy who drove from Chennai to Calcutta!) and Harsha decided that we were not having enough adventures in life. So armed with headlights, tail lights, GPS, digital cams, sunscreens, soaps, our helmets and of course, a lot of enthusiasm, we set out from near Silk Board at about 4:30 AM in the morning.

I found it unpleasant driving in the dark, that too early in the morning when I should have been sleeping. After about 20 km or so, the mood caught up. We drove into hosur just after sun rise and had a few cups of tea at a tea stall by the side of the highway. We set the motto for the drive - "sunrise at hosur, sunset at salem". Hosur is a town in Tamilnadu, at about the same altitude as bangalore. I could see long distance buses aiming towards Bangalore, coming from all over tamilnadu and kerala. There were early cars, most of them with tamilnadu and kerala number plates shooting out of bangalore, to escape the day time heat. Looking at them I realised they will reach cochin earlier than I would reach salem... :) But then, I was a stud who was cycling and thereby helping to the cause of a green earth, not wasting precious fossil fuels.

After the morning tea, the journey from hosur to krishnagiri looked promising, for we had tailwind and the route was a major descend of about 1500 feet in about 50 km, to Krishnagiri. I had earlier suffered this route, trying to catch it on the wrong direction. :) This time the stars were in my favour. I started storming on the pedals at 6:45, and was there at Krishnagiri at 8:28. In between, my speedo actually showed 58km per hour... It should have been slightly over 60, since my speedo reads a bit less. The GPS was with Sree and Harsha, hence I had no way of checking since I was pedalling ahead of them.

After Krishnagiri and locating Harsha, we went ahead and took a break at Kaveripatnam, about 10 km away. From there, the drive to Dharmapuri was bad.. heat was catching up. At Dharmapuri I found I had a lead of 13 km over my folks - something uncomfortable because I had to wait there in the blistering heat. Thats when Harsha decided he is going back. Shreekumar caught up with me in about an hour, after taking the GPS from harsha. The tamilnadu heat was indeed intense. We cycled less than a km and took a good lunch break.

The thought of going ahead in that kind of heat was a bit formidable. But Shreekumar's spirit was awesome. He said if he reaches Salem, it will be on his bike, irrrespective of what time it is. It was very clear to us that at that pace, we wont reach Salem by sunset. Those of you who have not been to Tamilnadu in that kind of weather will have no idea what that heat can be... The fact that Shreekumar was riding a mountain bike added to his woes bigtime. He could not speed up the way I could. I was driving the sleek road bike - the Hero Hawk, commonly available in India.

From Dharmapuri we started again, applying oddles of sunscreen on our hands, face and neck. After a few km Shree took an "exhausted" break.. at a small roadside shop. We had some water from there and waited for 10-15 minutes. Slowly but surely, the heat was showing signs of subsiding. That looked good. It was only 3:10 PM though.

From there, we ambled along to Thoppur ghat. A scenic and pleasant stretch, wonderful to drive, with four lane roads. It was all the more wonderful because it was downhill drive for us. We again took a break there, had coffeee at a roadside tea stall. Tea never cost anything more than 2 rs per cup. In Bangalore, it would be nothing short of 3-5 rs per cup.

When you cycle, you tend to understand the land and terrain pretty well. You will know for sure which direction the wind blows, the slightest increase or decrease in altitude et al... after all you are the engine!

After thoppur ghat, with the milestone showing 42 km to salem, life looked good. Temperature must have come to about 28 C and it was really pleasant with some decent tailwind. After a slight uphill I kept pedalling on... Shreekumar, exhausted that he was, fell back by a few good kms. I halted at the small town of Omalur, waiting for Shreekumar. After about 40 minutes of wait, he arrived and we had some cool drinks.

Now the last stretch was ahead of us... tired, but not defeated, we continued. The sun had already gone down. Obviously our slogan, framed 12 hours ago did not hold good. After about 45 minutes of pedalling and a halt to ask for the way to the salem bus stand, at 7:15 we inched into the Salem bus stand. The 200 km journey was over, the GPS proudly displaying the total distance as exactly 200 km.

We tried to travel back in volvo buses, but the time was over... hence had to rely on local private buses plying on bangalore salem route. I was sure another nightmare was in the making... we had dinner, preparing us mentally for the tougher ride back home in the bus. Shreekumar happily took the responsibility of taking the cycles onto the top of the bus. :) At 9 the bus left Salem.

The rest is history. I had broken my distance record...

Fire in blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 12:09:00 +0000

I just heard of a couple of shocking and not so shocking news about blogs. I heard of a guy from Google getting fired because of some remarks made on the company, after just two weeks of joining. Kiruba in his blog says, aptly enough, that one should not bite the hands that feed! A point well mentioned sir.

The silver-lining on this cloud is blogs are getting noticed. Work place, like love life, should be something that is very much private, I suppose. I mean, what is the point in exposing all the gory details to the world. It really makes not much of a point, though for the sake of democracy and stuff one may insist on it. But democracy again is rare these days - one finds more of hypocrisy!

I think people have taken the blogs too much to heart. If one starts criticising his bread provider, for reasons that may be eminently valid for him, it would still make a lot of horse sense to keep it out of such public forums. Besides, if you write well, your employers would know too!

Also writing too much is not a good idea anyways, whatever be the subject. Unless of course, you belong to the elite lobby of the press. If I were to write candidly about my friends here, I am sure the only one that would remain on my list at the end of the day will be my dog. So, I would love to be a bit discreet in here. :)

I am sure there will be people who dont agree much to my line of thinking. Lets make a compromise with the world - I wont throw a stone at you, and you wont bark at me either.

Musings... on Springtime

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Tue, 15 Feb 2005 08:50:00 +0000

This word Springtime would definitely invoke a sense of Nostalgia to my friends of REC Rourkela... it was the name of our cultural festival that happened in Spring. But I am not writing about those good old college days here.

The idea to write about Bangalore and its bloom in spring is irresistible, now that I see trees all around in fresh light green leaves, dressed to kill. It is so beautiful to see trees in "mood" - and that kinda elevates our otherwise dull spirits, particularly so if you are a software engineer like me. Profession induced depression (also called competitiveness, commitment to company and other such jokes, euphemistically) is a disease that has spread across my tribe like cancer - and it has stood between us and life in general.

I was cycling through Sanki tank area in Bangalore, near the Indian INstitute of Science and I just could not withhold my temptation to write about this beautiful season of seasons. Bangalore is generally claimed to be the green city by ignoramuses who have not visited my home state of Kerala (there for a change, the entire state is so lush green). Though I will not make the sin of comparing Kerala with Bangalore, Bangalore is still beautiful. Not sure if it would remain that way in future, but I prefer to be optimistic.

I could see trees with all yellow flowers.. and loads of them. I dont know the name of those trees because I make it a point not to. Because once you know the name, you dont see the tree - your knowledge comes in between. What additional thing do you gain by knowing a tree is Gulmohar or Sequoia? There are those trees that have red flowers on them - they look as if they all just had a great bloodshed. Some trees even have violet flowers. All these psychedelic colors should obviously have an immense effect on lovers, who are on the sprawl in the garden city.

I have to admit the variety of trees here is much more than in God's Own Country, where if you happen to see any other tree than coconut, you are lucky. But when it comes to just being green, kerala wins hands down any day. But you know these Bangalore folks, they just hype up everything... it seems the city is garden city! I should be calling my state the garden state then.

Apart from politico-natural comparisons, I guess bangalore has an appeal of its own. Especially so in spring. The streets are air conditioned, trees in bloom... what else will someone have in heaven? This biological carnival will extend into april after which summer begins. I guess thats when girls decide to show what they are made off. Its hot, so how can one dress much? :) Hot girls of bangalore have their bunch of reasons.

Then there is the air show where humanity displays how stupid they have been showing all kinds of machines made to kill humans (read fighter planes). But these things catch a huge audience...

All said and done, I am chilling out here in Bangalore and its Springtime!

So here I am, writing down these words from heaven. Those of you who are unlucky to be in this city, come over soon!

Musings on Tsunami!

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 10:25:00 +0000

I thought I would write down a few words about Tsunamis. This Japanese word has become a tad too trite these days due to mass usage. There is something about the sacredness of a word that gets eroded when it is used by everyone. That’s one of the reasons why I think Sanskrit is a cool language – it was never spoken by the masses. But there are Sanskrit scholars who stupidly try to prove it was a spoken language in early days. Buddha himself gave his sermons in Pali becos Sanskrit was too elite a stuff.

But then, I came in to write about Tsunamis. I was at my friend’s place in Libertyville, a northern suburb of Chicago, when he told me of this news. I thought of it as a routine natural disaster that most of us are used to. But the media attention this event mustered did surprise me. When entire towns vanished in earthquake in Armenia and Mexico city, there was not this much hype and concern from the world press. This is unprecedented.

Probably due to the fact that this disaster happened close to Christmas time, compassion was pouring down from around the world. Countries were competing in showing their compassion for the “unfortunate”. I can never stop wondering at the callousness of these “kind” people.

From my own point of view, which is within India, I don’t see a cause for major concern due to tsunami. Its force was significantly reduced by the time it touched Indian shores. Of course, things have been bad in Indonesia et al, I am not denying that. But in India if everyone shouts Tsunami! then something is seriously wrong - seems to be a case of mass propaganda from our holy press. Govt and private companies collected one day’s salary from everyone. This alone will amount to a very huge sum that should set right any damage caused by the great wave. Besides huge donations were given by other people with tones of blackmoney – in an apparent bid to reserve a place in heaven.

My point is that media hype has aggravated the calamity. I think the media to be a bigger calamity than the tsunami, seeing the way they glorified the entire episode. I hope many of you have heard of the story of the king who could turn anything he touches into gold. Our media is similar – but whatever they touch turns into crap. When I say our media, I am being truly international – no national or class distinctions.

People from the civilized world rushed to the aid of the third world brothers. There were instances when people in the affected areas refused the vegetarian food that was offered to them by aid workers. I am not sure if it is entirely true, but will not be surprised even if it is. If these people can be so choosy about food, then you can imagine if there has been any real disaster at all. Can you think of people (whoever was left) in Hiroshima and Nagasaki showing preference for food after the attack?

The word tsunami has come to indicate trouble. One of my friends said she calls her son tsunami – he makes too much trouble!

Tsunami or not, life will continue. Not just here in India, but everywhere in the world.

Welcome to 2005

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 23:35:00 +0000

This is not much of a posting really... but then I cannot just sit here idle without welcoming 2005. I found many fools doing that, as if by not welcoming 2005 it would not come in. For once I decided to play along with popular mediocracy and decide to write a welcome note to 2005. And now, having done that, I am feeling tall and proud that I have done my part in welcoming another important year in this century.

Among other things, Meera had taken my blogs a bit too seriously (please refer to her comments for my previous blog). I am sorry not to have included a disclaimer earlier on saying no one should take my blogs to the heart. Meera asked me what I meant in my previous see off article for 2004 where I wrote we had "Tsunamis and all for entertainment". Sombre question - but I dont answer such questions. I cannot feel sorry for a thing unless I experience it first hand. Journalists and the media are not enough to convince me of the disastrous impact of any situation. I found a lot of photographs here in the US saying US aid finally reached Sri Lanka and the picture shows destitute people begging for water. If this is what Tsunamis mean for the rest of the world, thanks for CNN and BBC, I would very much like to disassociate from having to do anything at all with it.

So Meera, dont feel bad about such words. If possible, you could contribute directly to the relief. Probably you are doiing that already. And if you are, there is no real need for a big concern for my words. I have done my part of the contribution too - which is mostly with money; I cannot give my time for these causes.
As I write these, the democratic media is showing the pathetic state of affairs in Sri Lanka and what the US is doing to "take the lead" in helping Asia out of the hell! God, give me a break. One thing I have seen about this country's media is even if they have nothing to say, they can move the people to display pseudo feelings and talk eloquently about the concern for the world, when majority of the people here think US is the world.

So another year in the making for us - let us see what we make of it. I dont see any difference from my personal standpoint - it is going to be another year, one third of which is spent sleeping. Perhaps most of us dont realise that one third of a day is spent sleeping. Then of course, there is work, work place and the associated crap. And friends, and family and pets and cattle on the streets. This year does not augur entirely well for me since I would be required to be back in the US for work related reasons for 4-5 months. I am game, but not with the usual gusto and enthu though. Thanks for my warning in the earlier article, Libra does seem to be good for 2005. For a while I am not thinking of changing my sign.

Musings on 2004...

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 21:46:00 +0000

Year end laxity and the fact that 99% of the work force here in my work place is on vacation has kind of put me in the vacation mode – in other words, no work is being done. I don’t feel like it either, which is nothing new, but this is year end time…! Just a few more hours to go to finally call 2004 another sloppy useless year in my life. To add to the mess I had been to the gym yesterday and ran 6 miles like a big hero and got my legs jacked seriously today. I am used to running such distances, but something went wrong yesterday. So here I am sitting with a painful right leg and writing stuff to give headaches to those who are dumb enough to read these.

The gals of my age group are busy in contributing to the continuation of the species. Others are into similar games, but are not keen on having the output so fast. Yet others, like me, are seriously weighing the decision to get married or not! Not much choice on that front really, considering biology is something of a formidable force. So sooner or later it is going to be traversing through the long treaded path of family and wife and nagging and kids and … my god.

Looking back at anything is not the way I go ahead about things. But sometimes it is tempting, like this year end time. It is tempting and disappointing too to see the results of another futile year on the planet. This year mainly comprised of about 200 days at work place.. it is the worst swear I can give to 2004. But honestly speaking it was not so bad. I flew business class to the US. Business class? I can see my Indian friends gasping for breath, for those poor souls have only traveled in economy through Indian service companies! Snigger, snigger.. My company, after its many years of existence learned that it is a futile thing to pay more to thankless disgruntled employees. Instead they decided to make our preferred airline rich. So these days all of us travel business class. No joke. Of course, US branches have always done that, but when bad times came in 2001-2003, the top management there suddenly decided that they could save good money by letting their Indian counterparts travel the way the world travels – economy class. But a dramatic quirk of fate brought back human travel to us Indians this year mid. So at least in that aspect we are at par with our American brethren.

2004 has not just been about work. My parents decided it is time to curb my freedom. I saw a couple of girls and thankfully nothing worked out. Most of the girls I saw were waiting anxiously for Tom Cruise. I tried to convince he gets in and out of marriage like a slimy reptile, but the girls preferred that instead. My stand on the church and its associated wisdom was disliked by a few of the females I had the privilege to see. Wisdom prevailed…

I read a good number of books – Krishnamurti and osho have laid their consecrating hands upon me. I was reading a book named My Diamond Days with Osho by one of his close disciples. This year it was another series of blasphemous literature like The Last temptation by Kazantzakis. If you have a taste for Krishnamurti, his books can be superb. You will get to know in the first few lines whether you have a taste for him or not. Osho is always delightful, sparklingly intelligent and irreverent!

I have been getting enough exercise since I cycle to work and back. So that it is about 24 km total a day. When I told my boss that I take the longer route to work, he said "you are so eager to get to work!". So this year there was some good cycling. Besides, I met my guru Shreekumar at the cycle shop where I get my cycle repaired. This gentleman is a top notch cyclist – see his blog at http://shreekumar.blogspot.com/. I consider my luck that I have always been able to be friends with and understand individuals who tread outside the commonly used paths.

Not a single year passes without some major blunders. This year I went to tickle and queendom and did a few IQ tests and came back crying since they said I was retarded. Mmmm. Don’t smile and snigger and feel superior. If I am retarded, then what about the people who are reading these pages? You should be even more so.

I am hoping that my sign Libra behaves well and gives me a good year ahead!

So looking back, it was a nice year. Tsunamis and all for entertainment. As each of these years go behind, one thing is dead sure. We are ALL growing older – whether we are growing is a different question altogether. I will let posterity answer that.

Musings on America - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 15:54:00 +0000

If I don’t mention the heartbeat of the US, the Interstate system of highways, I would be doing great injustice to Eisenhower. Interstates are highways that run the length and breadth of the country – four lane for most part, except in cities where they are sometimes upto 16 lanes. It is safe and comfortable to drive on these roads. Coming from India, they were really a surprise to me. Cows and animals normally don’t cross the road and pedestrians/ cyclists are not even allowed on them. However, more exotic ones like antelopes and mongooses do try to cross them and sometimes get killed. Cars and trucks roam free, as long as they abide by the speed limits. It is 65 miles per hour high and 45 miles per hour low limit within which you drive – but practical allowance make it for a high of 75. You average about 100 km per hour on a normal journey, assuming sane driving.

Workplace is real cool. People come in at 8 and leave at 5. During work hours they actually work! That’s a far cry from India where people come in at 10, take huge breaks for lunch, tea and fags, go back at 9 in the night and say they are overworked. These are a few things my countrymen should learn from Americans. Professionals are really professionals. J When it comes to efficiency, there is no beating them. Of course, germans are still there in Europe… But these guys are a tad too much obsessed about efficiency.

The food is something I guess I will take some time getting used to. Burgers, pizzas and stuff. My god. Then there is coffee. And decaf. Can you imagine decaffeinated coffee? People here actually prefer it. Decaffeinated coffee seems to be something roughly similar to having water that will not quench thirst. Then there is sweeteners, which looks like sugar but is not sugar. Why? Sugar has too much calories it seems. Boy. It is definitely a land of extremes. People running marathons to pass time on one end and people who weigh 300 pounds on the other.

If you ever go to have tea, they would ask whether you want small, medium or large size cups. Indians should always ask for small because they will faint if they see the large size cups. The large cups are so large that those size vessels are used in my village back in Kerala to feed cows.

I guess it is precisely this play of extremes that makes life sometimes interesting in this strange land, flanked by two different oceans on either side, and a huge country on the north.

When I talk about the north, many more things come to my mind. For instance, the winter. The guys who have been reading this and not known the winters here should read on. In the tropics, we have a far better climate. Winters are chilly here – temperatures in dec and jan hover perpetually below zero Centrigrade (yea 32 F). Even 30s are considered warm enough. Till now I have seen -16C. Only polar bears are naturally adapted to live in this kind of weather. And I live so north that I can actually walk over to the Canadian border, and cycle to the north pole! Its the season here when people open the fridge to feel warm. I had once put a few cans of Pepsi in my car boot. Due to the cold, the liquid became solid and made holes on the can. It was steady -14C outside then. People in India would never have used heaters in their cars, except the ones living far north. Here it is an everyday thing in winter. You cannot drive without the heater.

If I come to social mannerism, it is really fun. People say sorry, thank you, excuse me et al at the drop of a hat. These words are used so frequently that it has lost meaning. It becomes a mere formality to use these once beautiful words. In India, it still means a lot to say a thank you or sorry to someone. On the rare occasions it is used in my country, it is usually meant. Here in US it is used everyday, and never the person using it means it. All these kinda speaks of their British ancestry.

I have not yet written of the most fascinating topic yet. Girls! This is the land of Marilyn Monroe and Britney Spears, J Lo and others. But women here seems so dignified to me, unlike what Indians think snobbishly. Girls don’t always dress the way they appear to be in Baywatch. If it is the idea of my Indian friends, they better change. It is something like how National Geographic shows Africa. It looks so sweet and cute on NG, but the reality is slightly different.

Though I don’t know much about the family life of the Americans here, I guess it is pretty much good and sweet. People don’t marry and divorce the next year. I guess we Indians need to really get out of our alleged moral supremacy. I sometimes feel these people are far better and innocent than our folks in India.

One thing I did not like is the way they treat convicts here – I don’t see a trace of compassion or of Christianity about which they keep giving big speeches to the whole world. Punishments are very severe, and death penalty is common. These things make me wonder if there is really any civilization… Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth pretty much remains the norm of all conduct, Jesus Christ notwithstanding. Owning a gun is a fundamental right. Can you imagine that? I think it is outright stupid. When you drive along the highways you see boards saying Guns save life. I have not been able to see the point yet. One of the strongest lobbies in this country is the national rifle association, with a 4 million membership. That is insanity wholesale!

Another trouble is the name of streets. Looks like these people have seriously run out of names. Either it is the name of previous presidents, or states or such things that streets are given. Since any of these are not too numerous, names get repeated. So if you name a city called Springfield, you have to say in which state it belongs. Because there would be many Springfields in the country. So you say Springfield Illinois, Springfield Missouri et al. That would look really hilarious to Indians, but that’s the way. After the frachise business idea took shape, most places look the same – because McDonalds, KFC, Pizza hut and all have the same appearance everywhere. So if you happen to see a street in a movie, it will be very difficult to guess which city it is in. Even if a part of the city is shown, you will not be able to identify, with rare exceptions. In India it is a general knowledge question answered by very few people to find names that get repeated anywhere in the whole country.

(to be contd...)

Musings on America - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 21:27:00 +0000

For those of you who have not been successful enough to visit the United States (please mark my sarcasm!), I wish to write down a few words about the impressions that have gathered during my stay here.

It is one of the luxuries of my profession that you get to travel to lands where you will not be stupid enough to go with your own money. One day my manager called and said that I had to go to the US for some training on some real core crazy technical stuff. I was expected to get trained and do the work and then come back. So I was granted a B1 visa – permission to visit America for business.

Incidentally this managerial decision to train me on junk benefited me in many ways. In spite of having been in the industry for about 4 years, and at the age of 27, I had still not flown the Wright bros procreation. So I flew up and down to Chennai for visa, then from Bangalore via Frankfurt to Chicago on Lufthansa. As the flight descended over the Lake Michigan to Chicago I realized Americans tend to use words very loosely – this ocean was actually being called a Lake! Or was it that my concept of lakes was pretty much dwarfed by Indian conditioning?

Frankfurt airport did surprise me – they had trains to go from one terminal to another. In India my idea of a train was to connect two cities. In Chicago’s Ohare international airport there were greater surprises in store – the plane after landing actually goes over a bridge, underneath goes a highway! Things seem to be really upside down here. This airport is truly international – planes come in from all directions, and at any given point of time a person with average eyesight can see 5 aircrafts preparing to land. As if that is not enough, they have another airport nearby called Midway where only domestic flights land.

If you love cars, you would go crazy – all kinds of luxury, full size, mid size cars zoom on the highway over which you go when you board the train to the next terminal. The cars made here are way too cool and large. But like Americans, they drink a lot of fuel – unlike the measly Japanese counterparts that would run upto the northpole with one full tank of fuel. When talking about measures, here the only good thing is the measure of time is still in seconds, minutes and hours, thankfully. Rest all are topsy turvy – miles instead of kilometers, pounds instead of kilograms… Farenheit instead of Centigrade. But you get used to these kind of inanities slowly. I mean, you have no choice. Besides, you drive on the right side of the road – not a drastic change for me, unlike what I expected it to be.

Once you get down the flight, you encounter the INS, the notorious Immigration and Naturalisation Service of the US. Arrogance would be an understatement to describe their attitude. But then, it is not surprising. These are the people who would send back members of my tribe (engineers) and accept warmly drug smugglers and others who seeks political “asylum”. In fact, the word is quite apt – this is an asylum. America has the largest number of insane people in the world – and this list includes the most exalted ones in the political hierarchy.

I was lucky to land here the first time in summer. Superb climate, lots of sun, days extending to almost 9PM. People rent cars in the airport itself and drive to their destinations and return the car there… People don’t honk the hell out of cars. So the place is sweet and silent.

Another thing I noticed was huge displays showing temperatures here and there. You find a few every mile. The obsession of Americans with weather is mind boggling. Back in India, I had not seen a temperature display in a public place in 26 years of my life. Here they have channels for weather on top of it. People look at the weather channel and decide if they need to take umbrella or not. Back in Kerala, where it rains for a good part of the year, things were simple – if it is rainy season take umbrella. Otherwise don’t bother. Life apparently is not so simple for the folks out here.

People jog on the roads, many of them topless. Now, my Indian friends, don’t run to book your tickets to US. Unfortunately it is the men who are topless, not the ones you expected to see! Cars respectfully make way for pedestrians. Cyclists literally have their heyday. Running and health has become a national obsession, apart from eating – forty thousand people run the Chicago marathon every year. I don’t think that many number of people have run a marathon since 1947 in India. But then on the other hand, you have people who weight close to a ton. I have not seen such people in India either, thank god. Obesity is a national phenomenon here with 30 million people obese. It is no joke – I feel sorry for them. They don’t have the company of the opposite sex and in this country it is difficult to live without bed games. Obese people are a woebegotten lot, going to adult stores and buying stuff. It is a side of the US that people outside don’t get to see.

Of course, most of my impressions would be clouded by the fact that I am in the mid-west, land that is typically known for thin density of population. They say you live in the mid west if your idea of a traffic jam is three cars waiting for a tractor to pass. Roads seem empty most of the time. Here is another geographical paradox – this part of the country (Chicago area) is actually closer to the east than west. Still it is called mid-west. Slowly but surely, I am getting used to the American way of life – nothing surprises me anymore! They have local clubs playing American football – and they call it world championship! And for football they use more of their hands than their foot.

(to be continued....)

blogs and me

noreply@blogger.com (Santosh PM) — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 23:34:00 +0000

I am a high tech techie and the ease of using these pages here to put down a few words really amaze me. Wow, this thing is real cool! In the tech world, most of us believe that the best things in life come terribly complicated - like girls, for instance. Now some of you might fume that I have put them in the category of "things". Well, er, I found no other categories at this point of time and you can make a black mark on my moral character for such a drastic omission.

I have seen a couple of great blogs out here and honestly some of them give me a complex. Yea, not the one you thought about - it is a superiority complext that I got! So armed with my vocabs I crammed in for a never-to-do GRE exam and other such junk inherited from college days, I decided to come in and write a few words for those of you who have nothing better to do in life except read this kind of junk.

So this blog is my intro into the blogspace and I wish to subtly introduce myself through these pages, in course of time. No 1200 word intro (yea, I found that in my profile) would do for me - I can write a book about myself! So I left my intro in the profile blank and let the blogs do the talking. What were the blog guys thinking when they thought someone could intro themselves in just 1200 words. It is nothing short of a major blasphemy. :) Besides, my astrological forecast for this week said I would do something momentous related to "writing, publishing and stuff". So here I am, all set to prove astrology right and its critics wrong (thats my intention at least, not sure how things would turn out). Another pleasure in writing these words is that I am doing it during office hours, and that is getting paid to write these kind of stuff. Writers would definitely envy me.

Now that you have read upto this point through the pig pile, I guess I can give a brief intro. I am an engineer with a big time MNC now. Yea, I intentionally left saying working with them because I dont work. You can see that right away. That gives me a lot of time to browse the web, muse on how to spend time in creative ways (of course blogs are not one of them!) and stuff. Currently I am in a small sweet town in Illinois, US for a short assignment. Fate has landed me in a place where I wished to come by my own - University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Of course, anyone can walk into the campus - but getting in there for an MS in computer science is something which only the mighty brained IIT-ians would dare to think about. So indirectly I came into the same precincts as my more exalted contemporaries have landed.

My unwillingness to work is not because of laziness that affects people of my sign (libra). Nope. Far from it. I feel I am under-employed. In other words, I am just! an engineer when I should have been high in the echelons of power - say, the CEO. So these small jobs dont merit my calibre or time. That means you can expect to see more blogs of mine in and around this place.

I intend to put more and more of my lively life into these pages in the days to come. Someday, when the stars are really in favour, I might publish a book out of those. Incidentally, I have a series of articles and thoughts I have made on my college REC Rourkela, Orissa, India. These days it is called NIT, as if changing the name would make a difference. I will take those articles and put it here in a abridged format. Unless of course many of you protest loudly. Initially when I started putting my thoughts into words, I got a lot of requests - but I continued anyways!

So here is my first blog for all of you to bark on!

The Khan.